Has this happened to you? You have made a purchase from a company. You were happy enough with their offerings to make an initial purchase. You felt like they had relatively good quality and the price was competitive. However, the people you worked with were horrendous. When you had questions, getting a real person to talk to you was nearly impossible. No one returned phone calls. No one wanted to answer questions or solve your problems. Maybe you are like me and have come to the end of these kinds of experiences with a definitive statement: Never, never, never will I do business with them again! I have said it about a major phone carrier. I have said it about a bank. I have said it about a big box electronics store. I have said it about a certain chain of restaurant whose servers would rather entertain me with their rendition of the electric slide than refill my glass. One of the biggest reasons given for severing ties with a business is poor customer service.

We may not think of customer service being tied with marketing, but in retention marketing, it is a crucial component of keeping your customers. In today’s economy, you cannot afford to lose customers. With so much focus on being relevant with technology, it is sometimes forgotten that human touch is critical to relationships. And when we are talking about retaining customers, we are talking about a vendor-to-customer relationship where people will do three vital acts so you can stay in business:

1. Return and buy from you again

2. Say good things about you to other people

3. Have lasting good feelings about your brand

All three of those actions should be goals of your marketing plan. Let’s look at all three of these actions as they relate to customer service marketing.

Getting the customer to buy from you once again

When your customer completes their first transaction, what incentive have you given them to return to buy from you again? Typically there are four criteria that people use to determine if their experience with your company was good or bad. These are price, quality of the product or the service, did they get the product or service in a timely manner, and were they treated fairly and courteously by your employees. If any of these four criteria are askew in the mind of the customer, they are not likely to return for a second purchase. After the initial sale is complete, you have a short amount of time to make sure the customer is happy in these four areas and, if not, to fix the problem for the next time. This is where marketing and customer service have to work together. This may take the form of a customer satisfaction interview or survey. It may also take the form of a follow up phone call or an email. Too many times there is a disconnect between what is happening in a customer satisfaction survey and the follow up from your marketing action steps. For instance, I mentioned that I left a bank for poor customer service. They sent me regular customer satisfaction surveys – almost monthly. However, there was never any follow through on my dissatisfaction that was listed on those surveys, even though it stated on the survey that someone from my local branch would contact me. And when I went as far as taking my business to another bank after 15 years with their establishment, there was never a real live person who contacted me. What I am saying is that finding out where there are problems with your customers is worthless if you don’t contact them and try to fix the problem. This is very important to build into your retention marketing follow through.

Getting the customer to recommend you

"There is no better advertising than a satisfied customer.” This is a piece of advice that my father gave to me and I have found it to be a timeless truth. This is the entire premise behind much of social media marketing. It is giving your customer the ability to endorse you to their network of people. What does it take to get the customer to recommend you? First, it takes exceptional – not average – customer service. I believe it takes knowing your customer well enough that you can anticipate their needs and solve problems for them before they realize they have a problem. In short, it takes trust. How do you build trust from a marketing perspective? Part of that is to build on your past success. There are standards within certain trade groups that will allow you to display your success in customer service. These "seals of approval” can go a long ways in the trust factor. The Better Business Bureau has a rating system for customer satisfaction. So does Angie’s List and other third party consumer watchdog groups. These are also good for marketing purposes. However, the most effective marketing tool you can use is the words of your own customers. When you know you have done a stellar job for a customer, do you ask for a testimonial from them? You should. When someone compliments the work you do, ask if you can quote them on that statement. You will find that few will turn you down. Use these endorsements to build trust across your entire customer base.

There is a second way we commonly use to get the customer to recommend you. That is a guarantee of your work. Making a guarantee of your work takes all of the risk of purchasing from you out of the equation for the customer. Again, it boils down to trust. A guarantee says that you will fix any problems with your product or services, should they occur. When you take on the full responsibility of making things right, the customer is more likely to recommend you to a friend.

Getting the customer to believe in your brand

Your brand is larger than your logo and tagline. It is about the relationship your customer has with your product, yes, but it also goes deeper. Brand loyalty teeters on customer service and your effective marketing of it. If the customer has an emotional connection from purchasing from you – ie. you have made them feel good - they will relate that back to your brand. In time, this builds brand loyalty. Think of the brands you purchase and the feelings you have about those brands. For instance, where do you shop for groceries? My guess is you shop for groceries in the same store week after week. There is a reason you go back to the same grocery store time and again. It may be that they have the lowest prices in town. It may be that they keep a clean store. It may be that they have stocked certain categories of foods – like gluten free - that you cannot find elsewhere. Whatever the reason, it is all wrapped up into the brand of the grocery store and you have feelings about that brand that keep you coming back each time you need food. But brand loyalty is in jeopardy if customer service fails. If you are treated rudely by the employees of your grocery store, you will change your brand allegiance, I will guarantee it. Good feelings will sour and you will go looking for another to take their place. It is true of every brand. It is the job of marketing to guard the brand from these kinds of missteps. Again, it is where marketing and customer service are holding hands.

Here is the bottom line as I see it. In today's business environment, you cannot afford to have average customer service. You can't even depend upon customer service that is good most of the time. You need great customer service in order to retain customers. When you are able to combine your customer service into your marketing strategic plans, it pays off in customer loyalty. They will buy from you again, they will recommend you to their friends and they will believe in your brand. It is what separates the average businesses from the great ones.